Success!... Kind of.

Today I had a pretty big to do list, and I am happy to say that I did all of it.  This afternoon, before Bob went to work, (he works from 1p-10p to be able to collaborate better with his office in Louisville), we went to Ambience Mall.  It is reportedly the largest mall in Asia, and although I've only been to a few malls in Asia, I do admit that this one is pretty large (Kimberly, don't get too excited.  It's still smaller than MOA).  Before Bob went to work, we had breakfast at Haldiram's and got some passport photos made. Breakfast pictures below :)

After a long day of shopping, I'd found everything I wanted and I was ready to head home and relax.  All that stood between me and a long, warm shower was an autorickshaw.

Here is the only problem with riding in a rickshaw.  Well, the only two problems.  The first is that it gets really hot, which will eventually be bearable.  And the summer is almost over here too, so that will help.  The second, and larger, problem is that the driver usually only has a glimmer of an idea about where you want to go.  I've learned in my short time here to use as few words as possible.  They only get confused.

Me: Hello sir. Sector 42?
Sir: Sector 53?
Me: No.  42.
Sir: Ok.
Me: Kitne? He gives me a blank stare. How much?  (Kitne means how much in Hindi, his first language.)
Sir: How how much?  250 rupees.

After some bargaining, I got him down to 200 rupees, which is about $4.  We drove for about 30 minutes, and finally he pulled over to the side of the road.

Sir: You get out here.
Me: Um, what's that?
Sir: This is Sector 46.  You live here.
Me: I said 42!  *I know yelling doesn't help  people understand a foreign language, but I thought I'd give it a try.
Sir.  You said 46. *The screaming clearly wasn't helpful. 
Me: I said 42. 
Sir: 46.
Me: Sir, I live in Sector 42.
Sir: You said 46.
Me: Alright.  I'll just get another rickshaw.  Thanks.
Sir: No miss.  I take you.

During the first ride, I was vaguely aware that we were going the wrong way, but I thought I was just panicking, or freaking out for no reason, so I didn't say anything.  Joke's on me.  The sectors are about 10km apart, so the little jerk charged me 100 extra rupees.  I know it isn't much, but it wasn't my fault either.

When I got home, I was soaking wet, and when I got to our apartment, I was so glad to be standing at the door, steps away from that shower.  And then my key didn't work.  This is the first time I tried it, and it didn't work.  I tried for about 10 minutes, standing in that infernal hallway, which isn't air conditioned.  Which is fine when you are about to step inside your air conditioned apartment, and not ok when you are locked out.  To make a long story short, I called the main office, and three men came.  They didn't not speak English, and couldn't get the door open.  Right before I called Bob to come home and let me in, one of the men finally made it work.  It was gratifying that they couldn't open the door either, but that gratification cost me an hour in the 100 degree hallway.

Anyway, it was my first day alone in India.  At least I have something to remember it by.

Tomorrow: The FRO (Foreign Registration Office) which many immigrants in India (including Bob) report as their worst experience ever.  Can't wait!

Goodnight!

k, with love

An Exciting First Week

It's Sunday, and I am trying to avoid thinking about the fact that Bob will be going to work tomorrow, and for the first time, I will be alone in India.  Right now, Bob is making a delicious Indian dinner of chole with poori.  Chole is his favorite food here, and he has pretty much got me thinking the same, especially since he can cook it himself.  Note: Bob is a much better cook in India than he was at home, and he insists on cooking everything.  Maybe that will change when he returns to work tomorrow, but so far I have enjoyed breakfasts of "almost organic" eggs, which come in packs of ten, not twelve, along with "lite" milk, which comes in a box off of a shelf instead of a carton from the refrigerator.  I also love the Indian potatoes he makes, which are a lot like aloo tikki, which he usually makes along with one of the 24 boxes of Kraft Mac and Cheese that I brought from home.  We'll be out of those soon :)

Anyway, I had a great week, despite the extreme heat and the insidious effects of jet lag.  Here are some of the more interesting things we did/experienced:

1.  First monsoon-like rain.  I think it was on Thursday night, although I keep losing track of what day it is.  On Wednesday night/Thursday morning, I slept for about 14 hours, which means it was almost impossible to fall asleep on Thursday night.  Instead, I laid awake watching the first season of Parenthood (which is great, by the way).  For hours, from our balcony windows, I could see lightning north of the city, toward the mountains.  I've never seen lightning like this before.  It was like there were a million paparazzi in the sky, all taking pictures of the city. Finally, near dawn, the storm moved in over the city (anyone who knows me well knows how afraid of storms I am, and how desperately I wanted to wake Bob up).  There was thunder and lightning for about another hour, and then suddenly, it started to rain.  It was like nothing else I've ever seen.  It was kind of like one huge car wash-- the intense wind blew the rain in every direction.  It encircled trees, cars, and everything else I could see from our apartment, and before I knew it the wind started to blow huge buckets of it up onto the balcony and violently into the window from which I was watching.  The magnificence of the whole scene erased every trace of fear I had been feeling, and I screamed for Bob to wake up.  "It's monsooning!"  I yelled gleefully (and for which he still mocks me), but he let me drag him out of bed at 5 am, and we watched our first monsoon rain together.

2. First Hindi movie.  On Friday morning, we went to join some of Bob's Indian friends for breakfast at a mall.  We went to Bob's favorite restaurant, Haldirams, and ate some of the most bizarre things I've ever had for breakfast.  Every bit of it was hot and spicy, but I have to admit, I liked it.  Kind of.  It will take some getting used to.  A picture from breakfast is below. The girl sitting next to me is Prenna, and I think we are going to be best friends. She's so nice, and she always translates things into English.  Also, the guy sitting across from me is Gaurav, and he is Bob's best friend.  He is hilarious, in a pretty American way, which is rare.

Anyway, afterwards they begged us to go to the movies with them to see Ready, the new Salman Khan (read Indian Brad Pitt) movie.  We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.  It was two and a half hours long (with an intermission, of course), there were about 6 Bollywood musical scenes, and did I mention there weren't any subtitles?  Despite all that, Bob and I both had a lot of fun, and I was glad we went. Below is our favorite scene; be careful, the song might be stuck in your head for days, and you might catch yourself doing some of the dances.

3. First ride on the Metro.  One night last week, Bob and I decided to go to a Khan Market, a popular market in Delhi.  We could have taken a taxi, which would have been faster, but the Metro is much cheaper (about 40 rupees, or less than a dollar).  The first time we rode in a general car, and I got so anxious and claustrophobic that we had to get off after about 4 stops.  There were people literally all over us, and more people got on at every stop.  There are only about 20 seats in each car, and the car we were in was filled with about 100 people, all grasping for the handles hanging overhead.  We got on the next train, which came pretty quickly, and it was less full since it was so close to the one before.  Bob also showed me the "women only car," which was less crowded, calmer, and cooler.  After a few more trips, I feel much more acclimated to the whole thing, and I can see why the Metro is the preferred mode of transportation.  Although it is the slowest (it took about an hour and a half to travel about 10km or about 6 miles), riding in a taxi or autorickshaw would have been expensive, and harrowing in and of itself-- a description of the traffic in Delhi will undoubtedly require a separate post!

4. First date night.  On Friday night, our apartment complex finished work on its pool and had a big opening party and cookout.  The pool was a little gross, mostly because of the monsoon storm that came the night before, but we got in anyway.  Why not?  The cookout food was delicious-- they served chaats (snacks) like chole, some sort of aloo (potato) stuffed with dal (lentils) cooked over hot coals, and butter naan, which might be my favorite thing in the world.  We only stayed in the pool for about 20 minutes, since kids were staring at us like they'd never seen Americans before (Bob's white face must be giving us away), and the pool water was starting to gross me out.  After a pretty thorough shower, we went out to meet Bob's Canadian friends from work for drinks.  We went to a great rooftop bar called Jolly Rogers, which was fun but a little over priced, even by American standards.  I got to meet Sharon, Bob's friend's fiancee, and she is, in a word, awesome.  She's been here for about a month and she's great at traveling and exploring.  She keeps telling Bob and I all the stuff she's discovered, all the fun trips to take, in and out of the city, and she's also just really funny and interesting.  The Canadian guys were fun too-- they kept quizzing everyone on world history and geography, which sounds annoying but is kind of fun after you've had a couple of drinks.

Overall, I had a great first week.  Depending on how I sleep tonight, I think I'm starting to beat the jet lag, and although I'm anxious about my first week alone, I'm looking forward to my first few excursions alone.  Especially since another monsoon storm is moving in, which means it will be about 10-20 degrees F cooler tomorrow.  By the way, I'm not sure they're really called monsoon storms, but Bob and all his friends, both Canadian and Indian, think it's hilarious when I say that.  And you know me-- I'll do anything over and over as long as it's funny.

On tap for tomorrow:
Bob- work.  He doesn't want to talk about it, since he's been off for a week.  Poor kid.
Me-A trip to the mall tomorrow for some ready to wear Indian clothes, a new yoga mat (I have class on Tuesday night!), some slippers (I totally understand why it's gross to wear your shoes inside now), and about 20 passport photos (foreigners have to have them all the time here), and groceries.  Wish me luck!

Family and friends, we miss you!

k and b, from delhi, with love

First Impressions

I made it to Delhi.  I know it sounds ridiculous, but there was a part of me, a very large part, that believed that maybe I wouldn't.  But I did.  In a business class seat, which stands as proof, to me, that God is real.

Notes on my first impressions:
1. Jet lag is real.  This ain't a game.  Yesterday Bob woke me up at 6 pm (8:30 am Eastern time) and I burst into tears. Then I refused to eat, because I was so tired I thought I was going to throw up.

2. India is hot.  This ain't a game.  Yesterday it was 106 degrees, and in the early afternoon Bob took me out to show me the places he shops.  When we got back I was more sweaty than Sylvester Stallone in Rocky III.  Bob also mentioned, casually, that yesterday was the hottest day of the year, and that most Indians don't go outside before evening unless they have to.  I was not nice to him when he said that.

3. Indian people are nice, kind of.  Everyone smiles at you.  I read in a travel guide not to smile at people, especially men, and I was very determined to heed this advice before I arrived.  And then I got here and people flashed me their perfectly white teeth left and right.  So I smiled back, feeling guilty the whole time.  That travel book seemed so serious.  There were other times people weren't so nice though.  When I arrived at the airport, I spent an hour pushing my six bags around on a cart and searching for Bob.  When I tried to navigate around a group of men standing at a coffee kiosk, my cart tipped over and all the bags fell on the ground.  Instead of rushing over to help me, the men just watched me struggle to rearrange my luggage on the cart.   I wanted to give them an extended lecture on the virtues of hospitality, but I was too sleepy.  See note #1.

4. There are three housekeepers that come to our apartment everyday and clean EVERYTHING. I hate the idea of it, but I love the result.  I mean, who wouldn't like for someone to make their bed every day and wash the dishes?

5. The clothes people wear here make Western clothes look stupid. I'm gonna need a sari asap.  There is one exception to the magnificence of their attire.  Every woman had on a dupatta, those multipurpose scarves you've probably seen before.  When we got home, I asked Bob, "Why were all those women wearing scarves?  It's too f-ing for all that."  Actually, I said something more profane than that, but I'll spare you.

6. India is beautiful.  It is a place of extremes, which I read in several places but didn't really understand until I arrived.  On the way from the airport to our apartment, a beggar came to our car at a stoplight.  She tapped on the window determinedly but gently, and raised her other hand to her mouth like a child asking for food.  She was old, visibly poor, and beautiful.  Behind her, the sun glinted off the silver hood of a BMW.  Our driver sternly told us to ignore her.  On our drive, cows rested in the shade, men walked alongside carts drawn by horses, and the loud and obnoxious bursts of motor bike engines startled me over and over again.  I noticed high rise apartment buildings and skyscrapers emerging from the dust of buildings crumbling from age and lack of care.  Our apartment is nicer than our house in Kentucky, but there are homeless children living yards from the gate surrounding our compound.  Of all things, I think this will take the most getting used to.

Fifteen million people live in Delhi, and now Bob Lanham and I do too.  I am so very, very excited to be here.

Hindi

I haven't posted anything in the past week... primarily because there isn't anything to post, haha. I've been working a lot, reading a lot, and watching a lot of arrested development. Since life has been a bit boring lately I'll share something that I have been working on throughout the past 6.5 weeks... My hindi. I've never been interested in learning a different language, but when it can improve the quality of your life it becomes a necessity, haha. Katrina recently got the rosetta stone hindi version which we're anxiously awaiting, but I've been learning here and there in the mean time. I try to get people in the office to teach me a phrase or a word every day and it's been cool because I only learn things that I want to learn... so I end up remembering everything better. So once I've learned something I usually try to speak a little hindi to my co-workers throughout the day. It normally gets a laugh (since I'm still working on how to pronounce the words) or a 'Oh my gosh... that's so amazing'. From the latter, I think they're just being nice. At the same time I don't think they're very used to a pasty white guy speaking their native language. For fun here's a few Hindi words/phrases I've learned...

Mujhe mcdonalds jana hai - I want to go to mcdonalds
Mujhe KFC jana hai - I want to go to KFC... (you get the idea)
ye kya hai? What is this?
mere passe 30 rupees hai - I only have 30 rupees. (I use this on the rickshaw drivers all the time)
aap kaise hai? How are you
tike - Ok/fine
acha hai - I like it
Mujhe paani acha laga - I like this water (water is paani)
Kitna? How much?

These are the main hindi words I use/have learned so far. Hopefully by the time we leave I can hold my own in a hindi conversation.

See ya!

Bob

Trip to Old Delhi

I went to Old Delhi yesterday with Christian and Jean-Luc (2 french canadian guys that I work with). It was simply amazing. We didn't really 'do' anything... we just walked around and tried to take everything in. The sounds, the smells, the people... everything was like it was from a different world (trying to be dramatic, but whatever). It was pretty awesome to say the least. Here are some photos of the day!

I thought this was Ghandi at first... but it's not. I can't remember for the life of me who it is...

 

 Man washing his feet inside the mosque:

 This was my bag after it was knifed. Someone tried to steal my stuff at some point during our walk... Nothing was taken... probably b/c I was only carrying bug spray and sun screen.

 This was outside of the metro station. I think this is a temple.

 Now I know why there are blackouts in Dehli...

 Goats eating... not sure what though...

 Boys outside the mosque. These guys kept wanting pictures of us. Really nice kids.

 Me and the guys.

 Inside the mosque... not my best life decision considering that bin laden was killed just last week. I said I was Canadian... We originally went in with shorts but we were told we couldn't go in... hence the stylish skirts.

 Boys in the mosque washing their feet

 These people loved Christian. They kept asking him to take their picture so they could see themselves on the screen of the camera.

 Crazy, crazy streets of Delhi.

 Chickens sold on the street

 Goat on the street

 Rickshaw ride!

 Rickshaw cyclist sleeping... in a very strange position.

 Chickens?... vultures?... not sure.

 Ox pulling a huge cart

 Guy getting a rickshaw ride.

Hooray Monkeys!

While walking to the gym today I walked past a family of monkeys. It was awesome!

Looks like an elephant to me

So Shiva (one of the hindu gods) has a son named Ganesha. I was asking a girl at work about her replica of Ganesha at her desk... I said, so Ganesha is an elephant? It soo looks like an elephant. She said, "Don't call him elephant, ok?". Whoops.